A new Thomson Reuters Report highlights a phenomenon unique to legal and big law: clients aren’t talking to their lawyers about things that could disrupt the status quo—especially around AI and billing.
The report is full of interesting findings, but here’s one with broad and troubling implications: 57% of clients want their firms to use GenAI, but 71% don’t even know if their firms are actually doing so. 89% of all respondents see a real use case for GenAI in their work. Nevertheless, the report notes that just 8% of in-house counsel are inserting GenAI provisions in RFPs or outside counsel guidelines.
The Disconnect Between Clients and Law Firms
When it comes to artificial intelligence, clients just don’t know what their lawyers are doing. They aren’t asking if their lawyers are using AI tools for greater efficiencies. And if they aren’t asking, they sure as hell either aren’t demanding use for improved service and lower costs.
We have seen this before. As I have discussed, clients say they want innovation from their law firms to be innovative but don’t demand it. I’ve also talked about a similar thing with hourly rates. Clients bitch and moan about rate increases but rarely push back. (A recent Report showed an overall increase of 5.1% in 2024 and 5.4 increase in 2023)
The Billable Hour Bottleneck
Let’s face facts: when your business model is built solely on the amount of time spent on a task, there’s not a lot of incentive to use GenAI—unless it’s for non-billable work. So unless and until clients demand it, law firms ain’t going to do it.
Yes, there are some justifications for the billable hour model. It encourages thoroughness. It encourages accuracy: the assumption is that more time spent presumably means a more accurate work product.
But AI and GenAI tools can supply